Tristan's Top 100 Songs of 2020
First of all, fuck this fucking year
Tristan Young @talltristan
At the risk of being hyperbolic, what the actual hell was that? After decades of watching outlandish and incredulous fictions depicting a dystopian version of society barely functioning on the edges of it’s own logical conclusion, 2020 showed us taking our first real steps into such a reality. This year, the astonishing malignancy of police brutality and systemic racism become not only impossible to ignore but triggered a sobering moral reckoning among many of us that had comfortably done just that. The structures of liberal society were stressed to their breaking point and showed just how institutionalized our own hostility to each other has become. Over a million people world wide are dead from a virus whose debilitating lethality is matched only by the stunning demagoguery that has prevented a competent or even coherent response from far too many world leaders. It’s bad.
With all of that in mind it seems almost childish, and certainly a little frivolous to put so much emphasis on a taxonomy of the year’s music. However one of the few things we have left that we can all agree on is the ubiquitous capacity music has to help make each day a little less terrible. And it’s always fun to fight over. With that, I’ve put together my top 100 songs of 2020. From perhaps this perspective solely, it really was a great year. Fiona Apple made about as triumphant a return as an artist could possibly make. New comers 070 Shake and Special Interest showed the fascinating evolution of genres we thought were well worn. Denzel Curry continues to be Hip Hop’s secret weapon and Drake wasn’t too annoying this time around. Princess Nokia had an absolute year and No Joy has transformed into something remarkable. Half Waif interrogated our emotional stability to harrowing extents and then Phoebe Bridgers basically said ‘hold my beer’. Kamaiyah has a song called 1-800-Im-Horny and it’s really great.
As always the list is purely subjective, and hopefully will illicit some friendly debate. Although I am pretty committed to my #1 pick. The list is ranked starting at 100 and working down to the top 10. Find the playlist on our Beats On Repeat Apple Music and Spotify pages, or listen right here. Thanks for listening and better luck next year to all of us.